The Roots – Aboard the Intrepid/12th St Harbor- NYC – Sept 29th
Ok so to unpack things a bit today was going to be a bit nerve-wracking. Erin was coming from Texas to see me, and we hadn’t seen each other in two months, and most of that time was on purpose from both of our ends. It’s always exciting/anxious when you haven’t seen someone in awhile especially when you are involved with them – but given the baffling dysfunction of her daily life and how on edge things have been between us I was especially trepidatious but hoped for the best. I had some really fun things planned for us that I know she likes while she was gonna be here and was looking forward to doing those things with her.
We hadn’t been alone in a room together for five minutes before the torrential rain of resentment began to pour. Usually something else much more pleasant takes place when we are alone and its usually in the first five minutes especially after a long separation.
I hadn’t been around her unpredictable nature and her ability to throw random curveballs my way in awhile so I wasn’t acclimated and since I had some distance from it, my patience for it was even shorter than before. I don’t mean to throw her under the bus, she really is a lovely girl but when you combine her already unstable nature with seething resentment of everything I do, it’s a Molotov cocktail that impossible to prepare for.
And I certainly wasn’t prepared for after only being together for an hour, as I was coming out of the shower to prepare for the evening’s festivities I had planned, to catch her going through my things – looking for what? I don’t know – a hint of infidelity? – Clues to the Da Vinci Code?
I don’t know but to me this had now escalated to something I could no longer reconcile – but there was nothing I could really do about it – she was here for a week and this was only the first day (the first hour!) – If we had been in Texas when this occurred, it probably would have been our last night together, but I had no choice but to try to make the best of things, but I wasn’t ready to forgive something so betraying.
Ok so enough of that depressing shit, let’s get to the fun – The first thing I had planned was something fucking awesome – The Legendary Roots crew were playing tonight, and aboard the Intrepid Battleship overlooking the Hudson Bay – I had turned her on to Questo (Roots bandleader/drummer & DJ extroidinaire) last time she was here when we went to see the Tribe Called Quest movie that Questo had so graciously given out all the tickets to of the first screening back in July.
By the time we got to the ship, the mood was excited/expectant and we were ready to have a good time.
A band called the Hold Steady was opening that I’m not that familiar with nor was I too impressed with, but I was on some VIP juice that allowed Erin to go right to the front and take pics:
There was easily 1,000 people lined up to see the Roots rock the Intrepid. We were beginning to think we’d need one of the helicopters up on the flight deck just to make it to the stage, but after some finagling, we made it past the gate. The event went down on the deck of the aircraft carrier, with drink tents on top and food trucks down on the pier. Those in attendance were given red light up shutter shades, making the deck look like a hive of glowing fire ants from above.
After the first three songs we retreated to this VIP tent they had setup that was elevated for perfect viewing with free booze and food. I know I should be grateful for these little perks, but it never fails to embarrass me.
Not to mention the elitist/douchbaggery that you are rubbing elbows with looking down (literally/figuratively) at the regular partygoers sipping their eight dollar cups of wine as secret service-looking dudes watched and waited for someone to get just a little too close to the edge of the ship. Good thing there’s a guardrail on deck.
Blurts from a sousaphone (think wearable tuba) heralded the coming of the Roots. Damon “Tuba Gooding Jr.” Bryson burst on stage so violently we half-expected something to pop out of it. Brassy bass notes backing up Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s drums wafted out of the beast of an instrument, as Black Thought launched into How I Got Over.
The MC asked, “Can I get some help?!”—the answer from the audience was an overwhelming yes.
The energy was well-divided among the Roots, there was plenty of movement, with synchronized dancing and Bryson at one point waded into the crowd, going from front to back, the bell of his sousaphone poking above a sea of heads. Totally awesome as always.
(later that night) Bowl train w/ Special Guest Ali Shaheed Muhammad – Brooklyn Bowl – Sept 29th – Brooklyn, NY
Ok so in spite of the swankiness compromising my DIY nature, I was pleased that I had treated my lady to the full VIP experience, aboard a freaking battleship no less, and it allowed her to take photos from the stage. We left there totally amped and ready to take on the night.
We were heading out to Brooklyn to get more of the Questo experience as I had been telling her all about how awesome his weekly Bowl Train party is at the Brooklyn Bowl. I had taken her to the BB last time she was here to see Cibo Matto and now it was time to dance.
When we got there, their was notice that Questlove wouldn’t be spinning tonight because I guess he still had duties back at the Intrepid party we just left, but have no fear because his replacement was Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest!! –
Now, we were certainly excited, and I don’t think this caused us to have to high of expectations but I’m sorry to report that Ali just didn’t deliver, and I’m not talking about comparison – as in like if you were to judge his skills based just on that performance alone (which we will not because that would be totally unfair) I can say that I’m a better DJ – I don’t know what was up, but he was just off and the song choices had no flow. I forgive him cause he’s the man and he we still had a good time.
David Byrne ‘s Tight Spot installation – Pace Gallery – September 30th – NYC
Ok so I had more fun planned today with a full day of activities for us to enjoy – One thing that we enjoy the most is what Erin likes to say “I don’t wanna eat, I wanna dine” – And walking down 9th Ave so their is so much to choose from.
After a wonderful lunch at a nice Italian restaurant I took her over to the Pace Gallery so we could take in Talking Heads’ singer David Byrne’s new installation.
Now I am not the world’s authority on art, and I usually loathe the culture surrounding the art world and of all its pretensions, not to mention that I will be the first to admit that if not for life-long obsessions with the Talking Heads, I would probably have no interest in this at all (as I would imagine most people, regardless if they are willing to admit to it or not) –
However Erin is not the punter that I am with art, she studied it, knows what she’s talking about and uses this knowledge in her career in Interior Design. I thought we would both get something out of it as well as to do something different on a lovely day. They were taking it down the next day and its your responsibility that while your in NYC to take advantage of all the wonderful works you have at your disposal.
One could pontificate on what Byrne is trying to say with this, but one person that had grown tired of its image in a hurry was the main hired to guard it –
Inside the actual gallery was another exhibit running concurrently on Social Media interestingly enough/not enough also called Social Media, that Byrne also contributed to.It’s rare that I find something meaningful in these situations but there was some pretty effective pieces in this exhibit. In taking the internet offline, much of the work brings the web down to human scale.
For example, the piece you see above here in the corner is called Murmur Study that comments on how social media has affected communication or relationships. By aggregating onomatopoeic grunts and grumbles from Twitter, Murmur Study highlights the absurdity of reducing communication to 140 characters and the limitations of this form of interaction. By representing the tweets as something akin to receipts, the piece portrays communication reduced to a form of commerce where information is simply an object of exchange. High brow stuff, but I found it to be effective as well as impressive.
Now we couldn’t go the whole day, not even a wonderful day like today without running into a little bit of trouble. I still hadn’t forgotten her betrayal yesterday but the night went on really well and we were having a swell day, that is until…if you look again at the picture above, this time the left corner –
Ok this piece was a video installation that spoke of sexuality by a unique manipulation of footage of a documentary on a day in the life of a lesbian sex worker.
Ok, now I was in now way being insensitive or disrespectful to her by looking at this piece (no pun intended) – I wasn’t standing there staring with my mouth open, yes, this piece did take longer to experience because you were supposed to watch about 40 secs of each video.
Now just because this piece contained images of naked woman I was not going to look at every piece here except for this one –
I treated it as every other piece there and wasn’t gonna censor myself – Grow up already –
But the minute she saw me looking at it, she headed for the exit and burst open the door causing a scene, and no I wasn’t going to run after her.
